With all respect to Uruguay's results, how many truly great players did they produce in the last decades compared to the Netherlands?
I've got Suarez, Forlan, Lugano, Maxi Pereira, Cavani and Gargano off the top of my head. That's pretty good for a country of what, they said 3 million.
That's what I said, but is it more impressive than what the Netherlands accomplish with 5 times more population? Van Basten, Gullit, Rijkaard, Bergkamp, Van Nistelrooy, Seedorf, Davids, Sneijder, Robben, Van Persie etc. Also that's a generous use of the word 'great' player.
The second part of your question was where you would want to sent your/or go to as a 15 year old to to learn the game. In this weeks issue of the Dutch sports magazine Steve McLaren, coach of FC Twente, talks about the Dutch way of coaching young players. Steve McLaren said in that interview, that he once asked a youth player how he would take on the team of that day. The player started to move the magnets around on the board and talked for 20 minutes about the tactical issues. Steve told the re[porter he was amazed and asked the player how he did know all this. The kid said that he was taught this from eleven years old. At eleven years old already, Steve said in amazement, English players have no clue about tactics like the Dutch. So it should over here, and not at 15 but at eleven. Just as Jonathan de Guzman from Canada did.
15 was a random number, probably should have said 18 since that's when international transfers are permitted.
He's only limiting to this generation, whereas you're talking of the past 25 years. You would have to add Francescoli, Recoba, Montero, Fonseca to the list.
Other than Francescoli, you've still not got any truly great players. This is not intended as a slight at Uruguay in any way, it just depends on how you want to look at the original question. Are we looking at who produces the most elite players, or who produces the most good / very good players? If it's the former, I don't think you can include Uruguay over recent years. If it's the latter they have to be to the forefront of any discussion.
The main reason Holland is even mentioned in this thread alongside Uruguay is the country's connection to Surinam. That allowed Holland to have a mix of both Brazil and Germany in their playing style and gene pool. I realize that guys like Seedorf, Rijkaard, Gullit, Davids etc. were products of the Ajax acedemy, and that some were even born in Holland, but Surinam provided the roots or basic parts without which the Oranje factory wouldn't have had as much to work with. I guess you could say that about any country, but Holland's connection with Surinam is a lot more current than, say, Uruguay's Spanish and Italian influence.
Interesting discussion from the Dutch supporters but lets pit it another way do Holland produce half the great players Argentina does?
I'd take the current Dutch team over the Argentines. Argentina has a great stable of forwards and of course Leo Messi, but their midfielders and defenders are pretty average by world standards. If you made a starting 11 of players from both teams over the last decade how would it look?
Francescoli and Recoba at the very least, though Montero should be there as well, one of the premier defenders for Serie A during the nineties. Also, the Dutch have five times the population of Uruguay. Wow, must be the first time in a long time you make a post with some balls! By the way, Surinam is in South America, isn't it? Looking at the current generation, for first-rank creative players. Netherlands: Robben, Sneijder, Van Persie, Kuyt Argentina: Messi, Aguero, Tevez, DiMaria, Higuain, Lavezzi, Pastore So, being generous and saying Kuyt is first-rate, the Dutch do barely manage it. (By the way, I think Martinez from the local league is also up there with the others).
This is all a divergence from the question which country produces the most high quality players per capita. That nobody mentions Riquelme,Braña,Erviti,Augusto Fernandez or the latest young stars such as Ocampos,Dybala or Cirigliano emphasizes that some arguments are very one sided.
You've got some typically bizarre selections in here. I mean how is Huntelaar not included? How is Van der Vaart not included? If you are going to include Kuyt, then they are both far superior.
Historical awareness is not your forte. Holland plays the way it does thanks to the revolution brought about by Rinus Michels and to a lesser extent Johan Cruyff in the late 1960s. You might want to check what the Surinamese influence was on the successful Dutch club teams and indeed the Dutch national teams in the 1970s (hint: it's zero). I won't even go into your gene pool argument as things might turn nasty if I do.
It was Kuyt the one starting for Holland at the WC. Huntelaar is very mediocre, no way he is superior to Kuyt, who has made a successful career at a club of the stature of Liverpool. I think he meant post-70s, after the "Total Football" generation aged. LOL, touche.
Mmmm, I realize that you arenot aware that the great football started in Holland in the 1960's and that the by Maradona called best team ever the 1974 Orange squad and the in that period European cup dominating clubs Ajax and Feyenoord were all white. So what's your point?